“Speak less to Augustine about God and more to God about Augustine.” -St. Ambrose to St. Monica

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine of Hippo.

St. Monica's story is one that takes many twists and turns. Often we look at the lives of the saints and feel like sainthood is unattainable. But the saints, while very holy people, weren't perfect and didn't have perfect lives. They had their own vices and their own obstacles in life. It was how they trusted in God and asked Him for strength during these difficulties that made them qualified for sainthood. Once they found their way to God, they did not turn back.

St. Monica's biggest trial is one that perhaps a number of us relate to. While he is now renowned as a doctor of the Church due to his writings that laid the foundation for modern thoughts on Christianity, St. Monica's son Augustine turned away from the Catholic Church for a good portion of his life, nearly seventeen years. Raised in the Catholic faith, St. Augustine fell into a life of sin and darkness. Sins of impurity and pride plagued his mind and turned his heart from Jesus. He no longer believed in God and His Truth. 

Initially, St. Monica cast Augustine from her home. His new ideas of religion and the afterlife seemingly startled her - this was not the same boy that she had raised to know the goodness of God. After a period of time with the two estranged, St. Monica had a vision. She was to reconcile with her son. She visited their local bishop in tears, asking how she could help her son. The bishop comforted her saying, "The child of those tears shall never perish."

It is important to note that St. Monica fought to have her children baptized. Her husband was a Roman pagan and uninterested in religion - he did not give permission for Augustine to be baptized until he had fallen significantly ill as a child. After meeting with the bishop, St. Monica returned to her fight to save her child from sin. She committed to a regular regimen of intense prayer  and fasting for her son. When Augustine left for school, St. Monica went with him. There, she met St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, who assisted in leading Augustine back to the faith. 

How many of us have witnessed similar situations in our lives? We raise our children to know our loving and forgiving God, only for the seductions of the world around us to distract them and draw them away from Him. They look for something to give them happiness, but true happiness is found in our Father. 

As St. Ambrose said to St. Monica upon learning about St. Augustine's situation, "Speak less to Augustine about God and more to God about Augustine.” While we may find the urge to constantly remind our children who have fallen away that God is there, it is ultimately their choice. St. Monica witnessed her son live a precarious life with parties, stealing, lovers, even a child born of wedlock. But she did not pressure him or force him to live a certain way. She simply prayed for him to find his way back to God. To realize that God was the only answer to filling a hole he was anxiously trying to fill.

If you have a child who has fallen away from God (a relative, friend, etc.), we invite you to join us in this prayer for intercession from St. Monica. We are praying for all those who have fallen away from His love.

St. Monica, I need your prayers. You know exactly how I’m feeling because you once felt it yourself. I’m hurting, hopeless, and in despair. I desperately want my child to return to Christ in his Church but I can’t do it alone. I need God’s help. Please join me in begging the Lord’s powerful grace to flow into my child’s life. Ask the Lord Jesus to soften his heart, prepare a path for his conversion, and activate the Holy Spirit in his life. Amen.

{Prayer from Word on Fire}

By Incarnation School Principal Leah Coghlan, Vice Principal Amanda Ooten and Assistant Principal Kristi Erickson

Back to school is such an exciting and busy time of year for everyone! The promise of a fresh start, new friends and faces, and the anticipation of the unknown waits for us. But is it unknown?

We know God is there for us in any season of our life, even the busy ones. When we become overwhelmed or anxious, we are always invited to turn to prayer and find our silence and peace with God. At school, we invite our staff and students to take some moments in the morning, afternoon, and before we nourish our bodies to pray together. These moments might be small, but they are consistently beautiful as students stop in their classrooms, hallways, wherever they may be to take that moment with God.

This school year kicks off with a new goal for our school community.  We are intentionally focusing more and more on our mission to ‘walk in the footsteps of Jesus’.  We will be launching a new theme to Live Like Jesus, Love Like Jesus, Act Like Jesus. This will be integrated throughout the classrooms, academics, expectations, and most importantly prayer.

As you and your family begin another busy season, remember to slow down and find that prayer time together. We also invite families to attend our all-school Mass on Friday mornings. Seeing our students and teachers pray and worship together is the highlight of our week!

As always, the school families and Our Lady of Light parishioners are in our prayers. Thank you for keeping the students and staff in yours!

Written by Christen Aquino

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” // Matthew 11: 28

I don’t know about you, but these words resonate within my heart.  In the fast-paced world we live in, my soul desires to find a deep, fulfilling, abiding rest.  Too often though, this idea feels like wishful thinking since there are a million things to get done, trips to be traveled, assignments due, meetings to be had, events to be run, and more; and it seems like the time to get it all done in is getting less and less.  Perhaps this is why Jesus’ words are more important today than ever before: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  He knows just how whirlwind our lives are, and He is offering us a solution: that we would come to Him for an abiding peace and rest that only He can give.   
 
In my years of experience, youth ministry summers look like the total opposite of rest.  For example, this summer included two conferences, a mission trip, one weeklong camp hosted at Our Lady of Light and two weeklong camps hosted by LifeTeen in Georgia.
 
And yet, during all these conferences and camps, I often find more rest than I do during the rest of the year, because every day is centered around being with Jesus.  Daily Mass, praise and worship, adoration, opportunities for confession, talks and messages focused on growing in the spiritual life, small group conversation, and prayer.  All the chaos of life is stripped away, and I am able to focus on Jesus, present in the Sacraments, the Word, and in the community made up of our teens, our core team, and other ministers.
 
This summer Life Teen introduced our theme for the year: SANCTUARY.  While we’ve looked at this word and its meaning from various angles, the one that continues to most resonate with me, and our teens, is the idea of rest – rest from the world, from anxieties, from social media, from the demands we place on ourselves, etc.  The Eucharistic Jesus resides in the Tabernacle in the Sanctuary of our Churches and He dwells in the inner sanctuary of our hearts, if only we take the time to seek Him out and put Him first. 
 
I will always have a million excuses, but every day Jesus extends the invitation to come to Him so that He can give me the rest that He alone can give.  The question is, will I take the time to do so?
 
Challenge: Start small.  Set aside 5 minutes a day to encounter Jesus in the inner sanctuary of your heart.  Find a quiet place you will pray every day.  Read a passage from Scripture, listen to a worship song, or reading a writing from a saint and reflect on the words, asking Jesus how you can internalize them and make them present in your life.  The Hallow App has a great guided 5 minute meditation on Scripture or you can use the Sanctuary 30-Day Challenge.

Have you ever noticed how delicately our priests remove the Blessed Sacrament from the monstrance? It's quite a beautiful ceremony to end each Adoration, by returning Jesus in the consecrated host to the tabernacle, where all can continue their praise for the one who laid down His life for us.

We as Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present before us in the Eucharist. Jesus himself said to the apostles, ""I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; … he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and … abides in me, and I in him.” We do not simply remember the Last Supper at Mass, we are reliving it. We take an active part in receiving the true Body and Blood of Jesus. We say Amen, yes, to receiving Him.

While it may sometimes feel like we are just going through the motions at Mass, it is something new every time. We are older, we are different than we were the week prior. We reconfirm our belief and our stance as missionary disciples when we leave the church building and go out into the world. To quote the Catechism: "The Eucharist is 'the source and summit of the Christian life'" (CCC 1324). Life begins with the Eucharist, and it continues with us.

This is why our priests are so gentle while removing the Blessed Sacrament from the monstrance. How amazing it must be to hold Jesus in the Eucharist in their very hands. To cradle Him as they humbly carry Him back to the tabernacle.

Although, that's what it is to receive the Eucharist during Communion each time we go to Mass... isn't it? Whether we receive through our hands or on the tongue, we consume Jesus and in turn are living tabernacles. Jesus is alive within us. St. Pope John Paul II once said, "From the Eucharist comes strength to live the Christian life and zeal to share that life with others." How do we reflect God's love and mercy to those around us after we receive the Eucharist? How can we make a conscious effort to make God a focal point in our lives and share Him with others?

Written by Caroline Doorley

Hey there, Our Lady of Light Family,

This summer I had the pleasure to be the youth ministry intern for our family of parishes. It has been an amazing opportunity for me to serve Our Lady of Light in a new and different way.

At the beginning of the summer, I was lucky enough to travel to Arizona for the Catholic Youth Ministry Conference hosted by Life Teen. The Arizona trip not only offered spiritual refreshment, but also an opportunity for  professional development and community building within the Our Lady of Light youth ministry team. The most impactful part of the CYMC conference was the idea that your effectiveness in ministry is directly related to your ability to be uncomfortable — this does not just apply to those of us getting paid to work in ministry. Ministry is part of our faith, and it is not an easy task. Your ability to be uncomfortable will help you exceed in this task to ministry to those who haven’t experienced the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. This idea was something that I kept at the forefront of my mind throughout the summer.

Toward the middle of the summer, I gained experience with events and programming within our parish. I assisted the inaugural Into the Deep week for our Edge and Life Teen programs. We guided teens through the different historical periods in which the Bible took place by praying, playing, and eating our way through the Bible. Another event that I was a part of was Americana Fest. This opportunity not only provided an amazing learning experience on how to evangelize to those parking or walking by on our campus, but also how to assist managing a team of volunteers.  This event wasn’t specifically under the “Youth Ministry Umbrella,” but it really showed me that our parish staff do more than we could ever imagine. As a youth ministry intern, I am not just ministering to our youth, but also to their parents and anyone that they interact with.

At the end of the summer, I had the opportunity to travel with our middle schoolers down to Georgia for Camp Hidden Lake. This was such a fulfilling experience watching our teens grow closer to the Lord and begin to understand the upcoming theme for this school year: Sanctuary. It is truly inspiring to watch a group of teens not only grow closer with our Lord, but also with each other and with all the adult leaders on the trip. My favorite experience with our teens at camp was their willingness to support each other. Whether they were supporting a teen that was nervous to take part in a lake day activity, messy games, or after a particularly emotional experience with the Blessed Sacrament. Teens at Our Lady of Light have an amazingly supportive and welcoming culture.

It has been a blessing and privilege to work with our family's youth this summer. This internship has been a very formative experience. As I head back to Marian University for my sophomore year, I would appreciate it if you could keep me in your prayers.

Thank you for a wonderful summer!